Charging Bull in New York began life as both grand gesture and guerrilla artwork.
The bronze sculpture stands on Broadway just north of Bowling Green in the Financial District of Manhattan in New York City. The 3,200kg (7,100lb) bronze sculpture, standing 3.4m (11 feet) tall and measuring 4.9 m (16 feet) long, depicts the dynamic form of a charging bull, the symbol of financial optimism and prosperity.
The sculpture was created by Sicilian artist Arturo Di Modica (1941–2021) in the wake of the 1987 Black Monday stock market crash. Late in the evening of Thursday 14 December 1989, Di Modica arrived on Wall Street with Charging Bull on the back of a truck and illegally dropped the sculpture outside of the New York Stock Exchange Building. After being removed by the New York City Police Department later that day, Charging Bull was installed at Bowling Green on 20 December 1989. Despite initially having only a temporary permit to be located at Bowling Green, Charging Bull instantly became a popular tourist attraction, and remains so, drawing thousands to the Financial District every day.
Di Modica spent US$360,000 of his own money to create, cast and install the sculpture. Having arrived penniless in the United States in 1970, he felt indebted to the nation for welcoming him and enabling his career as a successful sculptor. Charging Bull was intended to inspire each person who came into contact with it to carry on fighting through the hard times, to be strong.
Charging Bull is one of the city's most photographed statues, second only the Statue of Liberty. In addition to having their pictures taken at the front end of the bull, many tourists pose at the back of the bull, near a very shiny set of balls. According to a 2002 article in The Washington Post, "People on The Street say you've got to rub the nose, horns and testicles of the bull for good luck." A 2007 newspaper account agreed that a "peculiar ritual" of handling the "shining orbs" of the statue's scrotum seems to have developed into a luck-seeking tradition.
On 7 March 2017, a bronze sculpture by Kristen Visbal, Fearless Girl, was installed facing Charging Bull. It was commissioned to advertise an index fund that comprises gender-diverse companies that have a relatively high percentage of women among their senior leadership and installed in anticipation of International Women's Day the following day. It depicts a small 1.2m (4 foot) girl, standing and staring defiantly in the face of the bull. Di Modica hated it, maintaining that it turned his positive gesture into a big negative. So Fearless Girl was removed in 2018 and relocated to outside the New York Stock Exchange.
Charging Bull has been a subject of criticism from anti-capitalists. The Occupy Wall Street protests used the bull as a symbolic figure around which to direct their critiques of corporate greed. A 2011 image from Adbusters portraying a dancer posed atop the sculpture was used to promote the forthcoming protests.
Finally (and naturally) Charging Bull has featured in several films set in Manhattan, including The Big Short, The Wolf of Wall Street, Hitch and the 2011 remake of Arthur. Also, the sculpture can be seen floating through space at the end of Don't Look Up (2021) after presumably being blown into orbit by the comet's impact. No bull.
Story Idea: Remo Giuffré
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References
wikipedia.org/wiki/Charging_Bull
fortune.com/2017/04/12/charging-bull-sculptor-fearless-girl-negative
news.cgtn.com/news/2021-02-21/Arturo-Di-Modica-sculptor-of-the-Wall-Street-Charging-Bull-dies
Images
1. The famous Charging Bull statue. Credit: CFP.
2. Arturo Di Modica in his Grand Street Studio, circa 1976
3. Di Modica in the basement of his 54 Crosby St studio where Charging Bull was conceived
4. New York Post headline from 14 November 1989
5. Charging Bull side view
6. Charging Bull's scrotum is noticeably lighter in colour due to frequent rubbing
7. Welcome to New York, hun. The statue of a girl facing the Wall Street Bull in New York on Tuesday. Photo: Brendan McDermid/Reuters.
8. Fearless Girl
9. Poster showing a ballerina on the Charging Bull to promote the Occupy Wall Street movement
